Title-chasing Valley set for what they hope will be a lucky last seven games

Having had their scheduled trip to Godmanchester Rovers postponed due to a waterlogged pitch last Saturday, Valley now kick-off what their fans hope represents their lucky seven final games of the campaign with a trip to Oadby Town GNG, where they will be looking to extend their run of away victories to 11.

Reflecting on last weekend’s postponement, Town boss Carl Adams said: “Of course it’s frustrating not to have got the game on.

“But fortunately we’re ahead of most teams in the division in terms of games played, so we shouldn’t have any problems with a fixture backlog.

“We’re also fortunate that we've got such excellent facilities here at Butlin Road which means we can train in pretty much any weather.

“Therefore we’ve been working hard in the meantime and the lads should be raring to go come Saturday, plus the break has given a few of them extra time to recover from niggles picked up recently.”

Rugby will be looking to at least protect the 10n-point lead they enjoy over Coventry Sphinx at the top of table, with Sphinx and Wellingborough now having swapped positions following the former’s 2-1 success at the Dog & Duck Ground last weekend.

Adams continued: “We’ve slipped up a couple of times at home recently, but our performances on the road have been pretty solid for a while now, so hopefully we can keep things on track at Oadby.

“We know how strong a team Coventry can be and they proved it again by coming from behind at Wellingborough to get another win.”

Following the Oadby fixture, Town round off the month at Butlin Road next Saturday (March 25) when they will face a tough test of their credentials in the form of Newport Pagnell Town.

Fourth-placed Pagnell still have a realistic chance of joining Rugby, Sphinx and Wellingborough in the promotion mix, although for the second season running their focus may be more on the FA Vase after they followed-up on their 2022 trophy-winning success in the competition by reaching the semi-finals again this year following last Saturday's penalty shoot-out win over Atherstone in the quarter-finals.